Safety and fair wages depend on breaking the turf model.

The Frontline show made it evident that the carriers have deployed this model to isolate the legal liability of safety by having multiple layers between them and the climbers at risk.

When there is no liability or risk to the carrier or turf vendor there is no impetus to place safety ahead of carrier schedules and turf vendor margins.

When the goals are primarily schedule and profit, the focus on safety is only given lip service.

The turf vendors make huge profits doing this business, in the hundreds of millions a year. In the pre-turf model there were more distributed profit amongst a greater number of companies in the form of local of mom and pop businesses that had a vested interest in safety.

Those mom and pops made good profits and paid fair wages. Along with the risk of being ultimately responsible and liable they were able to invest in training, equipment and manage a steady rate of work that allowed safety to truly be the #1 priority for their employees.

Today we have revolving door churn for the small companies serving as subs and subs to subs of the turf. Low wages for climbers dictates they will only work a short time in the industry and ultimately choose less hazardous work. This churn forces more new climbers making more poor decisions and rushing through the training and tasks of safety until the industry faces more deaths and injuries.

It's up for the mom and pops to take back their industry and the only way to do this is to break the turf model.

The turf owners will barely even notice it's happening. They're too busy spending the millions in profits they've taken from you, from the mom and pops, from the climber and construction crews and from safety education and equipment.

The choice is easy. Stand together for a week or maybe two weeks to force the carriers to the bargaining table.

The model that will work for the future is one where the carriers and the small tower companies eliminate the turf vendors and their massive profits and split that money between each other and safety.

The result is a triple win. The carriers and the companies actually doing the work win in the form of lower costs for the carriers. There will be higher profits for the mom and pops, more money for safety equipment and training and lastly better wages for climbers that will reduce churn.

The alternative is to let the same old bullshit be bulldozed on top of you every day for years to come until you're either driven out of business by low margins or by a serious injury or death that forces your bankruptcy.

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